The next time you are washing your
hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it,
think about how things used to be. Here are some interesting facts about the
1500s:

Most
people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still
smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides
carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying
a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted
of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of
the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and
finally the children. Last of all were the babies. By then the water was
so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, Don't throw
the baby out with the Bath water.

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It
was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small
animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof When it rained it became slippery and
sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying It's
raining cats and dogs.

There was
nothing to stop things from falling into the house.. This posed a real problem
in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed.
Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some
protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the
saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the
winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their
footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened
the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the
entrance way. Hence the saying a thresh hold.

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big
kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added
things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They
would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold
overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that
had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot,
peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When
visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of
wealth that a man could bring home the bacon. They would cut off a
little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

Those with money
had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead
to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often
with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered
poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf,
the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups
were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock the
imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take
them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen
table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink
and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England
is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to
bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a
bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25
coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they
had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of
the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a
bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard
shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or
was considered a dead ringer.

It is said that "cock up"
is an innocent expression meaning "error" used by printers and others, including
poachers. This latter group could well be the true origin since it is claimed
that, if you startle a pheasant that you're stalking, then it will squawk and
the noise sounds like "Cock up". A second possibility suggests an origin based
on "cocking" a flintlock pistol. If not cocked up there was likely to be a
disaster when the trigger was pulled. To be cock sure comes from this source but
otherwise I'm not impressed.
A third suggestion comes from archery. The arrows of traditional English long
bows had three feathers. One of these, named the "cock" feather, had to be
positioned away from the line of the bow string, otherwise it would hit the
string and affect the flight of the arrow to produce a "cock up".
In December 2002 Terry Instone offered the following: "..............May I
contribute a fourth possibility for cock-up (which I heard many years ago)? When
a fermented barrel of wine is ready to be run-off for bottling, a stop-cock is
driven into the barrel and a sample is tasted to check for quality. If the wine
has turned sour, the cock is twisted upside down showing that the barrel is not
to be used - hence.... "